A 40-PAGE IL LUSTRATED BOOKLET CONTAINING MANY ORIGINAL PERIOD-PHOTOGRAPHS IS INCLUDED IN THE DIGIPACK.

Juneteenth is a traditional African American celebration of freedom.

The term comes from the date, June 19th 1865, when African Americans in Texas learned that slavery had been abolished. Today, Juneteenth continues to be celebrated by African Americans throughout the country as a ritual of cultural pride and historical continuity.

It is a reminder that, despite all odds, African Americans have strived to be creators of their own history and culture. The quest for freedom is closely linked with the construction of identity for people who have experienced oppression. Finding the capacity to celebrate in the face of adversity gives people the hope and strength that through collective action they have the power to change the direction of history.

—Manning Marable & Leiht Mullings, in Freedom, PHAIDON PRESS, 2002—

I always wanted to have music coincide with History.

In 2006, I contacted Stanley Cowell to propose a project based on the origins of the struggle of Afro-Americans for their civil rights.

After receiving a first polite refusal, I managed to convince him. A recording-session was booked, and then cancelled for lack of funding.

Disappointed, like myself, by this impossibility, Stanley decided to make use of his work on the subject in an ambitious symphonic project.

Beginning in 2008, Juneteenth Suite, the piece based on our idea that he composed for symphony orchestra, chorus and electronics, would be performed on several occasions on the U.S. campus circuit. But during all those years I was still dying to make the original recording happen. It finally became a reality towards the end of 2014, thanks to Vision Fugitive.

Next June 19th will see the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of that Juneteenth festival.

In the end, the publishing of our project today is a coincidence of circumstance and calendar.